1st-place Ucf Continues Title Hunt

COLLEGE BASKETBALL

The Knights, Winners Of 14 In A Row, Put Their Streak On The Line Against Troy State.

January 31, 2004|By Alan Schmadtke, Sentinel Staff Writer

UCF celebrates the 10th anniversary this weekend of its first NCAA Tournament team -- one that also produced the school's first winning season in Division I.

Those Golden Knights will stay to watch a team aiming for UCF's first regular-season conference championship.

This season's Golden Knights own a two-game lead in the Atlantic Sun, with second-place Troy State coming to UCF Arena tonight. UCF won 74-72 at Troy last Friday.

A victory would give the Knights (16-2, 11-0) a solid lead with eight league games left, but even though they have a 14-game winning streak, UCF's players refuse to see themselves as favorites.

"I know people are hunting us, but we're still hunting, too," point guard Gary Johnson said. "We're hunting a regular-season championship. We're trying not to think about anything other that what we have to do for that."

UCF's best Division I conference finish -- in the American South, Sun Belt, Trans America Athletic or A-Sun -- is second in 1998-99, going 13-3 in the A-Sun.

Only two teams have gone unbeaten in the A-Sun (previously known as the TAAC): College of Charleston, which was 16-0 in 1996-97, and Northeast Louisiana, which went 6-0 in 1979-80.

Naturally, the Knights want no part of any such discussion this year.

"Oh, here we go," Coach Kirk Speraw said after a recent victory when the subject of running the table was raised. "We've got a long way to go before we can even think about talking about that. There are just way too many basketball games left to start that."

Indeed, just as UCF can open up its margin tonight, it also can have its lead cut to one game with a trip to Belmont next up. Belmont pushed UCF to the brink before losing 68-63 here last week, and the Bruins have beaten Missouri and Air Force.

Speraw's point to his team: One bad weekend can spoil two months' worth of work.

Plenty of teams have seen weekends ruined by Troy State (13-5, 9-2). The Trojans, the A-Sun's defending champions, lead the country in 3-pointers taken (220) and made (12.9 per game). They shot 45 treys in Wednesday's 120-87 victory over Campbell.

"They made 13 `3s' against us up there, and I thought we did a pretty good job against them," Speraw said. "I'm sure they're coming in here with revenge on their mind after last week."